Ian McCausland’s Posts on Exposurehttp://www.fiftyx50.com
Catherine MoltzanI was born and raised in Edmonton. I am a first generation Canadian. Both my parents were immigrants, from Germanic Poland but Poland. I was raised as an only child. My dad's family came before World War II but my mom actually was a refugee during World War II, because she was born in Poland but as a young child when the Germans invaded Poland. She lived in a few places in Germany and actually immigrated from Germany at the end of the war. She came here as an 18-year-old on the boat. My parents met here in Canada. My parents were very passionate about me learning English and not speaking English with an accent and not, if you like, being a foreigner. So even though I do understand a little bit of German, I never really spoke it. My dad actually also spoke Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian. My mother spoke a little bit of Polish.If you are an only child that is what you know. But depending on your circumstances I would say that in the beginning as an only child you do tend to mature in ways that other kids don't because you're around adults a lot more. But yet, on the other hand, you tend to mature less quickly with dealing with other kids. When I started grade one I was behind the other kids, but you quickly catch up. My parents made every effort to get me involved in activities to socialize, to do things. So I was involved in a number of things outside of school.The one thing I feel incredibly passionate about is the whole sort of idea of bullying. I was bullied as a kid. I was the awkward kid in the corner that nobody wanted to be friends with. That kind of carried with me all the way through. But, in fairness, my parents were always incredibly supportive and in particular, my mother who was very passionate about the idea that education was the key out. It was the during the middle years, when I was 11 to 13 yrs old. I was the geeky, smart kid with glasses and braces and acne. People thought I was different. I had different interests when I was I was a kid. For example, I was passionate about politics. At 11, 12, 13, yrs old I could have told you exactly what was going on in the political sphere. I could name prime ministers, cabinet ministers. I really got into that I suppose, mainly because my parents, particularly my dad was very interested in politics. I loved classical music. I still play the organ. I used to be a church organist So things like that, they’re not your sort of mainstream teenager kind of activities. I hated sports because I wasn't good at it. I was the kid that was often chosen last for teams in gym class and those kinds of things and I would find any excuse I could to get out of gym class.]]>
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 23:21:58 +0100https://www.fiftyx50.com/catherine-moltzan
https://www.fiftyx50.com/catherine-moltzanBetty-Jo YoungMy 50th birthday was a complete surprise birthday for me. I actually said to my husband, "Let's just keep it low key." We had a celebration party for him for his 50th last year, I took that whole week off before my birthday and, "I'm just happy to be at the lake.” He told me we had to come back into the city on the Wednesday. I said, "Well, why do we have to come back? I thought we were staying all week." "No, I have to come back into the city for something." I said, "You go. I don't want to leave." Anyway, one thing led to another. We ended up coming back to the city. He had to convince me that there was something going on for my birthday so we had to come back in because I'm the planner. I'm the one who makes all the arrangements, does all the booking of flights, all the hotels, all that stuff. It's always me. So I was giving him a hard time because I didn't know what was going on. Once I figured out something was up, I just played the game. We came into the city, and that Thursday morning at about 10 o'clock, he told me that I needed to pack because we were going somewhere. So we ended up on a flight and went to the airport, and actually saw friends of ours who also have cottages on Lee River. They were at the airport, had a little happy birthday banner, and we flew to Kelowna. We went to Kelowna because we wanted to do something in wine country, and to go out west. So we all went to Kelowna for the weekend and had a riot. We get there on a Thursday, and we just hung around the hotel and went nearby for dinner. The next day, we spent the afternoon on a boat. The following day, we did a wine tour, and worked our way home on Sunday.]]>
Sat, 06 Oct 2018 17:52:14 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/bettyjo-young
https://www.fiftyx50.com/bettyjo-youngEvan KuzI've known Evan for I think, 25 years. I was a young photographer just stating out, when he was a young designer working at Eaton's. Over the years we worked together on a variety of projects including a friends political campaign. More importantly we've traveled together, organizing groups trips twice to Iceland and next year we'll be leading a group to India!The conversation happened shortly after his birthday and the announcement that he was leaving the company he helped form and run, Bounce Design
]]>
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 16:06:34 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/evan-kuz
https://www.fiftyx50.com/evan-kuzDwayne SandallMy birthday is the end of May, 29th. The day of my birthday I didn’t do a heck of a lot. I was wrapping up for organizing a fairly big event for Canada Day. There was lots of stuff going on with that. My wife was being rather cunning and two weeks later she said, "We've finally have time. Let's go for dinner." So I show up, and there's about a dozen of my friends were all there for the surprise party. It was great there were bunch of people there I know really well, but just hadn't seen in awhileI was born in 67, the centennial year of Canada. So there's always this weird sort of bump of people. I went to a small school in Northern Alberta. There was a surge of us ’67 babies. The year before had about 35,40 graduates. We had 60 or so in my class. Then it went down to 35, 40 the year after. So for whatever reason [laughter] there was a surge of us. There was always this thing in math class in grade one or two where they were always talking about well how old will you be in the year 2000? Because that was going to be like the big number, right? I was always thinking "Holy crap. I'm going to be 33 years old in 2000." It was the millennial change and definitely, it was a focal point which took away the build-up to turning 50. So the year 2000 came and went. Nothing ever happened with the year Y2K. It was a non-event. It never really hit me until maybe about a week or two before my 50th birthday. I went, "Wow, I'm 50 years old. That's nuts." It's just a number in my mind. I've always treated birthdays as just a day, just a number, whatever. I'm not too worried about it. I don't have a birthday week [laughter].The only time I've every worried about a birthday was when I was 18 because living in a small town you can go to the bar illegally. That's all that mattered at that time. Now it's like, "Yeah, it doesn't really matter now." I drive my wife crazy because she's like, "What do you want for your birthday?" I don't need anything. It sounds cliche, but everything's good, I don't need stuff. I'd rather do something fun. I’ve done silly things like I ran 40 miles for my 40th birthday. I was too busy to run 50 miles for my 50th birthday. But this summer, I'll probably go run 51 miles on my 51st birthday just because I didn't get a chance to do it at 50."]]>
Wed, 29 Aug 2018 18:25:47 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/dwayne-sandall
https://www.fiftyx50.com/dwayne-sandallCLARE MACKAYFor my 50th we went to Ireland with our daughter and her best friend, which was amazing to be able to take her. She turns 16 while we were there. Our birthdays are a week apart. Her friend had never been out of the country. It was really nice to be able to take someone who spent a lot of time with our family along with us, which was just great. At the same time our son was in Japan. I have given our children the travel bug. There is a family connection to Ireland. My maiden name is Duffy, and my name is spelt C-L-A-R-E. I was actually named after the county in Ireland. My parents are both English, and I was born in England. But their grandparents, both sets of my mom's and my dad's grandparents were originally from different parts of Ireland. I went to one of the towns where my great, great grandfather had been stationed. I don't know much about him. My mom was filling me in as we went along. They had emigrated from Ireland to England, and then both sets of my grandparents were in England. My parents emigrated to Canada when I was two.Honestly, we were looking at Spain and Greece, and it was my daughter who said, "Well, why don't we go to Ireland?" I've been lots of times to England growing up, having family there. We're back and forth probably every couple of years as I got older, and then have been a few times on my own as an adult. But had never gone to Ireland because we would always just visiting family. You move from one couch to another, one cup of tea to another.It's a beautiful country. It was surprisingly unpopulated. Dublin is a nice scale of city, but the rest of the country is a lot of small, tiny, little villages and it's very surprising. We came away with some good stories. We stayed in some sketchy places that looked okay online and then weren't. Then our way home was quite dramatic. Our non-landing in Toronto. We tried to land twice and he aborted both times and just went straight up. I would say in our little cabin area probably 30 people threw up, including me. That's never happened to me. The turbulence was so bad, the winds were like 98 kilometers an hour winds apparently, it was just up and down and I was trying to talk myself out of it and it didn't work [laughter]. That's never happened to me. But the kids were fine. The girls were fine, so that was at least one blessing.]]>
Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:09:41 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/clare-mackay
https://www.fiftyx50.com/clare-mackayRhonda HeadI'm from Opaskwayak Cree Nation. It's a six-hour drive north. I have three sisters and two brothers. My parents passed away. I lived in [inaudible] until I was 16 and then I moved to Winnipeg because I always had a feeling that I needed to get out of my community. I didn't feel like I wanted to be there. I just needed to leave. I moved when I was 16 and I didn't even ask my mom. I said, "Mom, I'm moving to Winnipeg." I told her, she just said, "Okay." It's crazy because we grew up where my parents went to residential school. My experience which is really an indigenous family experience, is that I'm an intergenerational residential school survivor. My parents were taken away when they were six, seven years old, maybe even younger, so they got to feel that love from my grandparents, then they got taken away. Then they were in school and traumatized and then came home and started having families without dealing with the trauma that they went through.So as a result, my generation, we grew up not showing love. My parents didn't hug me or tell me they loved me when I was a little girl. We were fed and clothed and we went to school, but on the weekends we were abandoned. That was a tough reality to realize that our childhood was not normal. And it was sad. I went through mourning when I realized that I went through that. I’m not the only one. It was all indigenous families right across Canada that went through that. So people wonder why our community is so broken. People are in the streets. There are gangs, there's drugs, there's suicide, it's a result of that residential school, that’s how this tragedy was created within the indigenous community. So that's where I come from and that's my background, my childhood. And I always had a love for music when I was young. That was kind of my escape. I took piano lessons and excelled in it. I was winning awards and I had a really amazing music teacher in The Pas, then she announced she was leaving. So she moved away and that was really devastating for me. She made sure that we were all put in with music teachers but I couldn't connect with my music teacher that she set me up with and I just lost interest. I just quit going. That was another sad part of my childhood.When I got to Grade 7 we were allowed to go into band so I was like, "Wow, I'm going to take band," and I took it and I didn't even study or anything and I got A pluses. I played the clarinet and the alto clarinet. But I like I said before, I wanted to leave my community and I left when I was 16. When I came to the city there was no music program or anything so I had to let go of that. Then I graduated Grade 12 here in Winnipeg and went to school in Toronto because I was fulfilling a childhood dream. I used to read glamour magazines and teen magazines and I saw all that fashion, the clothes. I went to school for merchandising management, the business part of fashion in Toronto. I went to the Academy of Merchandising and Design right off of Bloor close to Bay Street. While I was there, I didn't know a soul, I didn't know anyone.]]>
Tue, 29 May 2018 16:31:11 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/rhonda-head
https://www.fiftyx50.com/rhonda-headAndrew BoardmanFor my 50th, my awesome wife threw me a really nice party at our house, I really didn't want any party at all. But it was sweet with a few of our closest friends and some family. They gave me a little toast. I gave them a little toast. It was great. The thing about turning 50 is that it has changed me in a lot of new ways and I’m still dissecting the what and the how.The day of is not a big deal. It's really a birthday like any other, but then quickly, within about a month or so, I became very reflective and depressive and a little bit angry, and happy and grateful — all of the things, and all of the feelings. You start to wonder “Well, how am I going to manage my existence for the next few years?” Everything comes more into focus.Over the past few months, I have thought of 50 as this unique turning point — a pivot. I absolutely made a psychological and emotional pivot, and it’s still unclear in which direction yet. I do know that I want to get back to many of the things that I really love doing and that I had forgotten about in the past 10 years or that I didn’t make the time for. I really want to get back to making art again and maybe making music a bit. I'm no musician but I'd love to be able to make play a little music.As your kids get older, you realize that time is released and hopefully, you gain a little bit more personal and creative freedom. If you’re lucky, I suppose, the world kind of gives that to you, that little bit of more — that glimpse again of creative capacity and thought. But you also have to take it, and that I haven’t quite done yet. It would be nice if I had a project that I could really focus on for the next couple of years and I'm still struggling with what that project will be.]]>
Thu, 19 Apr 2018 15:10:14 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/andrew-boardman
https://www.fiftyx50.com/andrew-boardmanPatti CampbellI first met Patti way back in 1986 when we both attended Red River Community College to study Photography. Looking back at it now, it was a time when mostly everyone who graduated found a job in the photo industry. I worked at a camera store and eventually struck out on my own while Patti went into the production side in printing. Her story illustrates the massive change the photo industry has gown through in our time, obliterating technologies still based on processes invented 150 years ago!]]>
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 19:15:34 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/patti-campbell
https://www.fiftyx50.com/patti-campbellJohn BaertI turned 50 on May 16th of this year. We didn't do a lot. We had planned to go to Chicago because my team is Chicago Bears, so we were going to go to Chicago. But our dog Jet passed away and it affected our eight-year-old in a way that maybe going on vacation.... wasn’t the right time. We replaced him with two dogs: Max and Bailey and they're brothers. Puppies still. We call them Hosers but they're actually Havanese Schnauzer. We'll probably do that trip next year. We'll go on some day trips and maybe take the dogs, or leave them at home, or we'll find a way to do that. Other than that, we went out for dinner with family and friends. It wasn't a big to-do with a big party or anything like that. For me, it’s events more than it is years that mark the passage of time. I would be lying if I said turning 50 had no effect, but I think 30 might have been a year that resonated more. 50, it wasn't as big a deal.If I had to sketch my life out, in a lot of ways, and with the benefit of hindsight, I would have done things exactly the same way because if I had had kids in my 20s, I might not have been ready. I WAS ready at 42 when my son was born, and I had the benefit of those years of living. My son has benefited from those years too in the things that I've learned and the perspective I have gained from that life makes me a better parent.I lived every year of my 20s in a fulsome way. I had great friends and we had more laughs than a person should have in a lifetime. I was in a bit of a career crisis in my 20s. I didn't know where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. I worked in the restaurant industry and I did a lot of traveling in my 20s, so while some people will do that more in later years, in their 50s and 60s, I did a lot of traveling in my 20s and met a lot of people, saw a lot of the world, and that has been a benefit to me in later years.When it comes to having kids late, I think it has been, in my case, a benefit. A lot of times, people in their 20s they'll get married and the expectation is that they'll move in a certain direction, and that includes kids and that includes careers. In your 40’s you still do all the things that you could at 20. Maybe a little slower, but I still get around with him. I'm still coaching his hockey team and we get out all the time and play ball together. I was an assistant coach on his baseball team as well so I still do those things that I would have done in my 20s. In your 40s it can be just as fun. In a lot of ways, I'm a kid at heart. So, that has influenced kind of the way I raise him. We have lots of fun together. I'm an assistant coach of his hockey team and that takes up a lot of time. Is it ever awesome to work with kids. To be in the lives of little kids who remember you, and who you have a hand in influencing. Being able to ask them “How was your week? How you're doing? You seem down today.” All those good questions that you get to ask.I was a bartender in my mid-20s, in my early 20s when I was going to school and traveling around, There were lots of moments where I”d say "I don't quite know the direction I want to head career-wise,”I ended up being journalism to start and that led me down a lot of interesting and rewarding roads. I feel really lucky to have the professional experiences that I've met great people along the way.]]>
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 22:13:59 +0200https://www.fiftyx50.com/john-baert
https://www.fiftyx50.com/john-baert